Cosmos Tours – 13 Days
“……..The landscape is riveting, stunning, incredibly wild, untamed and rugged. It is beautiful. Breathtaking. I have found Scotland. It is everything I imagined and more. Raw, rich in its depth of colour and hue, and it has an enormous palette of varied shape and contour. There are wild crags, mountains and waterfalls; bogs and peat fields. It is windswept. At times forested in lower elevations. And at other times……..treeless. Covered in heather and exposed rock. Words are simply not enough to describe this highland world and all its glory. We stop several times for photos. But I realise one photo is simply unable to show the quintessential heart of this landscape. So the camera is kept incredibly busy and captures image after image after image of this outstanding region’s incomparable beauty. I….am….in….awe. I am………in love.”
Day Twelve – 26th. September – Monday – 9:45 am – A leisurely breakfast for my sister Sandra and I this morning at the Michelangelo Hotel in Milano. Some shopping, catch a shuttle to the airport, then in the air on a British Airways fight and on the way to London by 4:05 pm.
We arrive in London and find our transfer to Kensington Close Hotel. Amazingly we share the transfer with relatives from Melbourne who have visited Switzerland the week before us. How random is that? We share the same Great Grandfather. Our grandfather’s were brothers. Our fathers cousin’s. So we are second cousins. It was fun swapping details and contacts. Like us, they had just undertaken a pilgrimage to the home of our forefathers, Bosco Gurin in Switzerland.
Sandra and I check in at the hotel and collect our keys. We are here two nights and it is a very nice hotel. We go straight to the lass at the Cosmos desk who has been waiting for us to give us the Cosmos tour information. We are the last to check in and she’s obviously planning a quick exit as she packs her things whilst we speak. I book to go on three Optional Tours tomorrow, Sandra books one. Sandra’s been to London before and done some of the things I’m lining up to see. It will be a full day for me.
We get directions to a local pub and set off to find it and to have dinner. No spare tables so we sit at the end of a table where three locals are seated and say hello, there’s quite a bit of friendly chat and laughter. They are then joined by more friends. It’s welcoming and warm. Dinner is a Hamburger and Chips with Cider at £11, and Fish and Chips and Mushy Peas with a Coke £14. Homely meals in a friendly atmosphere and suddenly we are very much looking forward to the next fortnight and meeting more of the British locals.
Day Thirteen – 27th. September – Tuesday – I set the alarm last night to get up early for a 7:50 am exit from the hotel for the London Morning Tour. Unfortunately my brain is an hour behind and still on European time when I do so and I majorly screw it up so there’s a phone call at 8:00 am, “Where am I?” I was up, dressed and had everything packed so grabbed a packet of biscuits, my bottle of water, shoes and socks and my camera bag then I hightail it out the door thirty seconds later knowing it is simply not done to late on these tours. Yes, all eyes are on me as I get on the coach, and yes I think looking at the displeasure I see before me, I was the late one, THIS time.
The morning starts with a “Morning City Sightseeing” tour for £46 which includes the stunning St. Paul’s Cathedral consecrated in 1697. As I put my shoes and socks on and secretively munch on biscuits in the front seat we begin the tour and drive here there and everywhere. We visit many of the Monopoly board game icons I know by heart, Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, Mayfair, Waterloo Station, Marlborough and Park Lane. Then it is movie fame, Notting Hill, and the walking bridge over the Thames that featured in one of the Harry Potter Films. The famous stores, Harrods and Marks and Spencer also feature as does the Queen’s personal favourite store, Fortnum and Mason.
On a reasonably humid morning, at around 20 degrees Celcius, there is no sign of rain, which is a bonus as London is renowned for rain. The opportunities for good photography however are sadly lacking. Apart from the fact that the bus we were on had only one level, there were restricted views through all the windows, as more often than not there was a double decker bus in front, behind or beside us. Both sides. This severely cut into the views from every angle on the tour so I really struggled to get anything worthwhile regarding images this morning. London, it seems, is full of buses. And taxis. And buses. And luxury cars. And buses. And people. And did I mention buses?
St. Paul’s was a highlight. The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London. Its dome, framed by the spires of Wren’s City churches, has dominated the London skyline for 300 years. It is 365 feet (111 m) high, and was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1967. The dome is among the highest in the world and St Paul’s is the second largest building amongst the church buildings in Great Britain. The mosaic work in the domes is brilliant, with over six million individual pieces of glass used to create the art works designed by Sir William Blake Richmond. We are told that originally the domes were a drab brown and that the mosaic work was added later to brighten the cathedral up. St. Paul’s is the design of Sir Christopher Wren and took 35 years to build. It is possibly most well known as the Cathedral where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married, the only royal wedding not to have taken place in Westminster Abbey.
We see many other sights, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, The Tower of London and The Law Courts. But it is a flying drive by tour so it is only glimpses of all these places. We do drive to a drop off point near Buckingham Palace though and walk to the road that joins another road that leads to the front of the Palace. This is where we see the Royal Horse Guards riding. There is no official change of guards today as this occurs only every second day but we see two Royal Guards, exercising near Prince Charles’ residence. We then walk to the Palace for some photos.
We finish the tour by 11:50 am then break for lunch but I really feel it was not good value this tour. The lack of views, and rush to get here and there amidst thick London traffic detracted completely from sightseeing. In hindsight, a full day doing a Hop On Hop Off Tour I believe would have been both better value and a better all round experience with time to actually stop at many of the famous locations and time to see more things.
The afternoon’s Optional today is a tour of “Buckingham Palace and the Royal Mews” for £57 and it is a fabulous tour and really good value for money. We start at the Royal Mews and see several Royal carriages, stables with four Royal Horses, and we visit the Royal Mews Gift Shop. It’s then onto Buckingham Palace for a tour of the Staterooms, the highlight being a display in the Palace of the Queen’s fashions over the last ninety years. It is a comprehensive, enlightening and wonderful display and features both gowns of significance and gowns from her overseas tours. We see the Queen’s baby christening gown, the gown worn as a child to her father King George’s coronation, the Queen’s wedding gown and the Queen’s coronation gown, as well as dozens of other day and evening gowns worn throughout the Queen’s reign. Hats also feature in the exhibits and the audio headsets handed out at the start of the tour give brilliant commentary throughout the visit.
The Queen opens Buckingham Palace to the public only two months of the year in August and September whilst she is in residence at Balmoral in Scotland. So we are fortunate, we are told today, to be here during the period the palace is open, as it closes again, this weekend. No photographs are permitted inside the Palace, and we go through high security upon entry. Understandable. The staterooms are opulent, lavish and richly decorated. There are chandeliers, gold guilding, rich colours and sumptuous furnishings throughout. And the Palace’s art galleries are comprehensive. Reuben’s, Titian, Van Eyck. Stunning.
We are permitted to photograph once we are in the gardens and there is a large pavilion type area at the exit from the staterooms where you can buy lavish afternoon tea cakes and cups of tea and coffee. Royal Icecream made from Royal Milk from Royal Cows and sold at genuine Royal Prices to be enjoyed in the Royal Gardens is also available. I desist as the queue is long, but Sandra joins the line and enjoys a generous slice of cream filled cake with strawberries for her efforts but is eating it on the run as we hurry through the gardens to rejoin the tour group at our pick up point. The tour, of course, has been timed to the last second.
After the visit to Buckingham Palace we return to the hotel for an hour to change and freshen up then we set off again to do a round up of guests from three other hotels for the “Taste of London” £74 evening. This takes some time but the bus, full this time with 51 occupants, are then taken to a Pub in the Meat District called the The Butcher’s Hook and Cleaver where we enjoy a flavoursome three course pub meal. Entree is a Salad or Tomato Soup with Basil. Mains is a rich Beef Meat and Ale Pie with Gravy, Mash and Cabbage or Cod Fish with Chips and Peas. Dessert is Lemon Soufflé with a Strawberry and Shortbread or Chocolate Fudge Cake and Cream. Tea and Coffee.
After dinner we travel to the Thames River where we join a cruise to see London by night. The city is gorgeous at night and below a moody sky Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the dome of St. Paul’s, significant buildings and bridges, and of course the brilliantly illuminated London Eye, shine. It is cool but still humid this evening and everyone has brought jackets. Most choose to sit on the top deck of the boat enjoying the fresh air and unobstructed views. The excellent commentary is clearer on the top deck also. It is a wonderful evening’s entertainment and it nicely tops off a fabulous day out and about in this beautiful city. I’m now very much looking forward to getting back here again in a fortnight when the tour ends and doing some more activities in London.
Day Fourteen – 28th. September – Wednesday – An early start 6:30 am bags out the door, breakfast at 7:00 am, meet the group at 7:45 am and depart London 8:00 am. We are travelling North to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the early morning London traffic is slow, the day clear, mild and a comfortable 20 degrees Celcius again by the time the bus makes its way through London’s outskirts towards our destination.
We break from the city into countryside, and small acreages are fenced with hedges and paddock’s sizes range from twenty to fifty acres. The traffic is thick closer to London but by 9:30 am it is quite easy going on the motorway. We have met RA our English guide and Alastair our Scottish driver. RA is a dry wit comedian. She is tall, slight in build and has a very big personality. She’s enthusiastic, vibrant and convincing. RA goes through the Cosmos information list as we drive and covers everything from what to do if we get lost, to luggage allowances, to seat changes, to free wifi.
The Optional Tours information is handed out. I am not going to do all the Optional Tours but RA sets about telling all travellers why everything is an absolute must see and must do. She is a clever ambassador for the Globus family company and I can hear the chime of money being withdrawn from pockets before she’s even finished. I smile.
We stop at Stratford-Upon-Avon for a two hour lunch and shopping/free time stop after a brief stop at Anne Hathaway’s cottage for a photo and sadly we are not able to take the time to go in before we head into the village. William Shakespeare is what this town is all about and the souvenirs here are mostly relative to the important English character. It is a quaint English village of about thirty thousand residents. There are many tourists and the shops are all beautifully decorated. Some of the group take the time to visit Shakespeare’s Cottage.
Onto Coventry after lunch and an hour stop at the Coventry Cathedral, a stunning modernist architecture church. The current St Michael’s Cathedral is built next to the remains of the old which was bombed in 1940 during the Second World War, it was designed by Basil Spence and Arup and was consecrated in 1962. It is quite beautiful inside with huge stained glass windows and stunning but simple artworks along the walls. The huge clear etched glass windows at the entry are particularly intricate and breathtakingly creative.
Sixty to seventy per cent of Britain’s 64.1 million population resides in England, but Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England form Great Britain. We are heading to Leeds for our first overnight stop. Leeds has approxiamtely 800,000 people and four universities. It is a legal centre and successfully reinvented itself as a major business centre after serious economic crisis earlier this century. We are not seeing much typical English countryside as we are travelling on the M1 most of the way. It would be lovely to leave the four lane (both directions) motorways and drive the country lanes. But not this trip. We are on tour and it’s all about time and economies.
We reach our destination at about 5:30 pm and settle in to our new accommodations. Dinner tonight was included, Entree was Duck Terrine and Salad, Mains Pork and Vegetables with Gravy and Dessert, Chocolate Fudge Cake with Cream. All served with efficiency and expediancy, but that’s OK as I’m looking forward to an early night.
Day Fifteen – 29th. September – Thursday – Early rise, bags out the door at 6:45 am, breakfast from 7:00 am, on the bus and going by 8:00 am. We are heading to York. The city of York is steeped in Roman history and dates around two thousand years in age being founded in 71 AD. In the Middle Ages the Romans loved Yorkshire primarily because of all the rivers as these were necessary for military navy, trade and development.
“York was a major wool centre and it became the major ecclesiastical centre of the Church of England……a role which it has retained…….It is an historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss and is situated in North Yorkshire in England……In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network and a confectionery manufacturing centre……But in recent decades, the University of York and health services have become major employers, whilst tourism has become an important element of the local economy…..Yorkshire is well known for the Yorkshire Moors where Bronte’s Wuthering Heights was set, the story of Heathcliffe and Kathy……..Yorkshire is the largest county in England and is so large it is divided into four quadrants……..” We are educated in one short hour by knowledgeable RA on this charming city so steeped in history. And this is the part I love most about touring. A wealth of knowledge and information is offered to you from each guide in the form of entertaining and enligtened amusement, as you journey through the day along the designated tour routes.
We depart the bus for a walking tour. There’s not many actual inclusions on this tour that have entry fees included, and yes, to actually go into the fabulous York Cathedral, it is an additional £10. I go in the group’s entrance by mistake after the tour and am told to walk around to the other entrance but I see a fair bit of the cathedral though by doing this so I decide my £10 is better spent elsewhere today. And I’d simply rather not spend money where I can’t actually spend the time to really enjoy what I’m buying. We are given half an hour free time after the York walking tour and are to meet back at the bus by 11:15 am. Disappointingly it is not enough time to really absorb much of the city’s history or sights.
I email Tom and Hugh Richardson at Wheelbirk’s farm in Northumberland as we leave York and ask if they are around tomorrow as I have a free day in Edinburgh. Tom and Hugh came out to Australia in 1986 and stayed well into 1987 and both spent several months working on the farm with my family in the northen Mallee, in Victoria. As young men in their early twenties then, they were great workers and genuinely good fun, but today, thirty years later, they will have reached middle age. I have heard the odd snippet of news about them both over the years. Today I’m hoping we at least make contact if not set up an opportunity to see other other tomorrow.
We depart the M1 some time later, and driving on secondary roads (yay) we head to Hadrian’s Wall. As we drive we are told about the wall by RA. She is a veritable hive of information and very very funny every time she speaks. She tells us about Roman occupation and the wall’s history. Hadrian’s Wall was built as a defence mechanism and was begun in 122 AD in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne to the Solway Firth and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire. It had a stone base and a stone wall. Cut stone on the outside and rubble on the inside. There were milecastles with two turrets in between and there was a fort about every five Roman miles.
The remains of the wall we visit are token. Almost a non event in terms of structures however the fact that sections of the wall exists some almost two thousand years later is quite suprising as it certainly is not the architectural genius of a structure such as the Roman Pantheon or equivalent structures.
It’s then onto Jedburgh and the Abbey where Mary Queen of Scots was held incarcerated for nineteen years. The Abbey is decaying and broken but hauntingly beautiful. There is a charge to go in to the Abbey grounds. But again time was not allocated for any significant stay so paying to go into the site becomes an exercise in utter futility. A quick walk to its perimeters is all the time that has been factored. I am crushed…….I love, love, love historic architecture and a mere taste of this exquisite site is simply NOT ENOUGH.
The countryside is beautiful on the drive further into Scotland but it is a long day in the coach. Traffic upon entry into Edinburgh is so slow it is at a complete standstill for a time then treking at snail’s pace for the next half hour; ridiculous. We arrive at the Edinburgh Capitol Hotel and have only half an hour to get ready before we go on our first Scottish Optional Tour the celebrated “Scottish Evening with Bagpipers and the Ceremony of the Haggis” for £67. It is a night of singing, dance and a little theatre with an excellent three course top quality restaurant meal and a taster of the traditional Scottish dish Haggis. Not my favourite but I gave it a shot. This evening’s Optional was great value for money. Fabulous, emotive music, rustic engaging entertainment and wonderful food. The restaurant seats 310 guests but the service is excellent and it is without doubt one of the best evenings of entertainment I’ve ever attended on any of the Cosmos Tours I’ve travelled on so far.
I was very glad to get to bed tonight as the pace of the tour so far has been relatively furious. I am constantly frustrated however with the time allocations at most places, and the lack of entry charges being covered. Also, we’ve been driving on major roads most of the time so we are missing seeing a more “scenic” England and Scotland. I must say live in hope for a deviation from this practice. I must be an eternal optimist.
Day Sixteen – 30th. September – Friday – A city orientation tour around Edinburgh this morning with a local visitor guide was brief as it was here there and just over there, with no real stops and points of interest where you could see alot or take a good photo. Very little information. Onto Edinburugh Castle and it starts looking like rain. The castle is on an elevated hill and overlooks the city. I am permitted to take photos and do so both outside and inside except for the Royal Scottish Jewel’s Room, where no photography is allowed, but in all honesty, there was not alot to photograph: a crown, a sceptre and sword, and to one side, a necklace or two, but it was very much worth seeing.
It’s raining as I leave the castle and slippery underfoot, so it’s a struggle to make it back to the bus on time. The coach then takes us towards the city and I suddenly hear the guide say “and there is the railway station.” I grab my back pack and bag and hightail it to the front of the bus and ask to hop off. With my trek down to Newcastle today I realise I’ve just saved myself a substantial cab fare if I get off now. The rest of the tourers continue on, some are headed to the Royal Yacht Britannia this afternoon for an Optional Tour costing £59, others will simply enjoy free time in the city of Edinburgh. (My sister who is visiting the Britannia later told me the city orientation tour only lasted a few more minutes after I left, so it really was an advantageous opportunity to alight.)
The Edinburgh Waverley Station is reasonably easy to navigate after I ask a random staff member for directions. He happened to be an Aussie. I buy a return ticket to Newcastle and some lunch, then find the right platform and train. The train I’m sitting in departs twenty minutes later at 12:00 pm and I call Tom to tell him what time I’ll arrive. He lets me know Hugh will meet me at 1:30 pm in Newcastle. Hugh is in a white van with “Wheelbirk’s Farm” on the side and he is easy to spot, and he is relatively unchanged, although older by some 30 years. I am welcomed with a bear hug and kisses. Then we take the scenic route to the 250 acre “Wheelbirk’s Farm” and from a high rise overlooking the valley, Hugh points out its boundaries.
Wheelbirk’s sits amidst a colourful patchwork of English fields. Stone walls and hedges, so common in England, line almost every road, and pockets of woodland crisscross the countryside nestling next to green fields, fallow paddocks and golden crop stubble. Quintessential England. It is unlike what I imagined yet, exactly like what I imagined England to be like. Fertile, inhabited, quaint, fecund. I expected green to be everywhere. But there’s stubble and dirt as well. Of course, as it’s autumn. My evenings in front of the TV watching Escape to the Country come to mind. This is England, and it’s all……….lovely!
“That’s my house” says Hugh, as he points out a tiny dwelling, a mere speck surrounded by flower gardens, in a field, some miles away. Hugh is married to Alison, and they have two children Nel and Finley. It’s a beautiful house, typically English, and made from limestone quarried from Wheelbirk’s. “I’ve just extended it” Hugh says. We hop back into the van and head towards the farm. And just along the road a mile or so after we drive through the gateway of “Wheelbirk’s Fram”, is Tom. A tree surgeon, Tom is doing what he does with trees, ascertaining a select oak’s health. Several have been felled today as they were leaning precariously. Hugh tells me one had fallen on him in his car in recent years, so they are cautious when there’s a tree of questionable future.
I get out and am welcomed with a huge smile, and more warm hugs and kisses. These “boys” really enjoyed their time in Australia working and living with my family on the farm. And today they have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. I’m immediately taken up to the Ice Creamery, given a cappuccino and a cup of icecream of my own personally selected flavours, Coconut and Passionfruit, and the “boys” are making it for me, rather than their staff, who run the Ice Creamery. “Are these all visitors cars?” I had asked upon arrival seeing more than twenty cars. “Yes”, Tom had said, “though there’s not many here today, normally visitor’s cars fill the whole bottom paddock”.
Tom and Hugh developed the farm by expanding into their niche Ice Cream business. They are unique in that they have Jersey Cows, which has 6% cream in the cows’ milk, so it’s much richer than the milk of the black and white cows in nearby neighbour’s paddocks. But Tom and Hugh are the only ones making ice cream in the area. We sit and chat and it’s wonderful to share news of their lives, family’s and journey’s in life, disappointments as well as successes. I’m thrilled for them both and see two mature men happy with their lives and settled in their places (with their families) and in the world. They show me the icecreamery facilities which also doubles as a function venue for weddings, parties and the like.
Tom then takes me on a tour around his garden. He shows me wife Lucinda’s greenhouse which is full of rosy red tomatoes, and he tells me that he built it for her fortieth birthday, albeit two years after the event. We then tour his house. The camera is busy, he’s proud of his wife, his kids and his home. He tells me that Lara his oldest daughter loves horses and has a white pony and he shows me her and younger siblings Kate then Sam’s rooms. Then he makes me a cup of tea. Hugh pops in “do I want a sandwich to take back on the train?” And would 5:00 pm work for me to head back to the train as “I have to take Finley into Newcastle for soccer practice?”
Tom and I then tour the cow sheds, visit the paddock to see the cows and No:17 walks up to say hello. Tom says “she has a lop sided face, which is unusual for an AI calf now full grown”. I see the ice cream making room, and visit the barn where the cattle live up to 180 days of the year as the paddocks are too cold during the winter for them to be in the open. Tom says it’s been four years since they’ve had substantial snow. I see the silage pit and hay storage sheds, machinery and finally the dairy where the cows are presently being milked.
Tom’s kids arrive home from school and I take photos of them and Tom together (I photographed Lucinda at the Ice Creamery earlier). It is a whirlwind tour full of joy and enthusiasm and pride of achievement. I show pics of my kids and their kids, and tell him of my life and what I’ve been doing. It’s a two hour crash course in making up time as almost thirty years have passed with next to no communication. I have knowledge of their comings and goings though, as they do of mine.
Hugh then picks me up at 4:30 pm, takes me down the lane about three hundred metres, and I meet Alison and his kids and then Hugh shows me his house. More photos and another cup of tea. It’s familiar, friendly and welcoming. We walk around his garden and visit his summerhouse and patio area. I promise to send him and Tom a USB of the pictures I’m taking.
Hugh, Finley and I leave for Newcastle at 5:00 pm and take a different but eqully as scenic route back to Newcastle. Thoughtful of Hugh to show me another area in their spot in the world. The drive is pretty but the sun is getting low in the sky, and we drive to an out of the way spot to drop Finley when we reach Newcastle. Hugh then takes me to the station and we say our goodbyes. I have asked both men to stay with me if they head to Australia again down the track.
I head into the station and catch Richard Branson’s “Virgin” train from Newcastle to Edinburgh less than ten minutes after I arrive at 6:03 pm. And it’s a scenic trip back as the sun sets and the sky colours from soft pinks and mauves to black above the sea on the trip back into Scotland. The round ticket today cost me £71.50 and was worth every penny. I have had an absolutely fabulous, spontaneous and funfilled day.
The train arrives at 7:30 pm. I disembark and head into the night on foot into a bustling city. I decide to walk several blocks taking pics on the way as I look for a cab. I am in no rush. The people of Edinburgh and its visitors are out and about walking, dining, shopping…….enjoying the clear evening. It is cold but mild and the city seems vibrantly alive, friendly…..safe. Three blocks along I find a cab and give the driver the name of the hotel to head back to rejoin my tour group. The cab costs me £12.85p.
Day Seventeen – 1st. October – Saturday – Fire alarm at 3:15 am this morning. What to do? I am dead asleep in my light pyjamas. We are in Edinburgh. It is freezing outside. I put my shoes on no socks and a warm cardigan. I take my camera, handbag with money and passport, backpack, iPad and iPhone with me. I really had time to grab the suitcases which were packed, but wondered if I’d be the only guest to bother and that I might hold up an evacuation. And I shouldn’t look too organised. Besides if it’s for real there’s bound to be panic.
I was hoping it was only a false alarm and after twenty minutes, three fire trucks and half a dozen fireman later, it was all deemed OK to return to bed. A shower left on had supposedly triggered it. A wedding party playing pranks in the middle of the night. The manager had been running around handing out silver thermal blankets. He looked decidedly unimpressed with me taking photos and ducked behind upraised arms. It was a definite signal of displeasure. Too late. It was on Facebook ten minutes later. Who did that I wonder?
We depart this morning at 8:07 am in pea soup fog. Typical of the autumn weather along the East Coast of Scotland at this time of year. The thick fog is called the Scottish Haar (pronounced Ha) and is caused by the proximity of Edinburgh to the cold North Sea. The Haar is generally cold, dark and dank and is said to, unlike any other fog, penetrate to the very bones.
Ten minutes later however we are in bright sunshine briefly but as we head across the middle bridge of three fabulous bridges all running parallel to each other, then we are back in fog. To the right is The Forth Bridge, a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth River and it is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland, as well as being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is almost completely lost in the thick fog however, which is hovering over the Firth of Forth River. The bridge we are travelling over is the The Forth Road Bridge, a suspension bridge that was opened in 1964 and connects Edinburgh at Queensferry, to Fife, North Queensferry. To the left is the Queensferry Crossing Bridge, a new road bridge under construction. It is being built alongside the existing bridges and will carry the M90 motorway. It is a cable stay bridge and construction must be close to finishing as I can see the only two sections yet to be completed and joined are almost touching each other.
We are on a main freeway, two lanes both directions, heading for St. Andrews the golfing capital of the United Kingdom. Probably the known world, adds RA, according to the Scots. There are many golf courses here. We drive around the city and view St. Andrews University’s many buildings made famous from Prince William and his Kate having been students there. We also pass by an old church with much of its stonework missing, and it is surrounded by gravestones that have sat there for hundreds of years. It is a beautiful city.
There’s an hour free time. Again not enough time to really see or do anything so again frustration sets in for most on the time here. I walk then wander to a nearby coffee shop above a Golf Pro Shop and enjoy a cappuccino from my perch on the hill overlooking the sea and the rocky beach below. The beach we are told is the same beach used in the beach scenes in the film “Gallipoli”.
We head from St. Andrews on secondary roads and start climbing in elevation towards our next destination Pitlochry via Dundee. Scotland’s main three industries are whiskey, fishing and tourism, and everywhere in Pitlochry there are shops brimful of souvenirs. We have an hour and a half and need to find lunch here as well. Most of our group head to a jewellery store that makes unique jewellery from dyed heather which is then compressed into a stone like material with other additives. Others head to a free whiskey tasting nearby. And all too soon we all return to the coach and are on the way again to the next destination.
As we are gradually driving up into the Scottish highlands we see our first wee beasties, Scottish Highland Cattle, or Coos with their thick shaggy coats, cute blocky shape heads and bodies and long Viking-like horns (if they haven’t been trimmed). Apparently they are a very flavoursome meat animal and the main cattle breed here in Scotland.
The trees and beautiful grassy hills give way to slopes filled with the muted tones of heather and gorse. The season for heather flowering was early this year starting the first week of August instead of the last week, so the usual purple colours hugging the hillsides at this time of year have already vanished. Beneath the brown and green tones of the heather there is rock and bog, and soils which are generally infertile and unsuitable for growing crops. It is very pretty and the forerunner of the promise of higher peaks and more sparse vegetation to come.
We arrive in Grantown-Upon-Spey. The majority of the group head off to a Highland sheepdog demonstration in the hills but Sandra and I have seen this before, both in New Zealand and in Australia, as well as in the movie Babe of course. No really we are both from a sheep farming background and have worked as Rouseabouts in several shearing sheds over the years, so we decide to skip the demonstration and crash at the hotel after a long and refreshing walk around the tiny village shopping. Dinner tonight is included at the Hotel which has a very smart street presence, and comfortable but simple rooms.
Day Eighteen – 2nd. October – Sunday – I’m wondering if the fire alarms in Scotland are hair trigger as I was in the shower this morning when the alarm went off at the new hotel at 6:50am. Dilemma. Do I rush out in a towel? Or disregard the alarm and take my time. The latter idea wins out and by the time I get out of the bathroom it has stopped.
We depart this morning at 8:15 am but one of the tourers leaves a wallet behind, we turn the bus around some 20 minutes after leaving and return to Grantown-Upon-Spey. Sandra hops off at the turn around spot to enjoy a half hour alone time in the woods. One or two of the other tourers lament they should have done the same instead of spending the time holed up on the coach. So we are an hour behind schedule by the time a rest room stop is factored and we return to pick up Sandra, then we head on our way.
This morning we are trekking to Culloden Moor and the scene of the April 16th. 1746 Jacobite massacre. We are told the history of the fight on the journey, the hopelessness of the cause, the charming affability of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the ruthlessness of the English soldiers successfully killing 1500 of the Scotsmen to their loss of only 50. Having been a fan of the Diana Gabaldon books since forever, I know the story, albeit romanticised by the popular modern author. This is the place I’ve been wanting to visit the whole trip and I’m delighted to find we have an hour and a half here.
There is a comprehensive information centre set up on Culloden Moor and many of the group choose to go through it to read and discover more about the event but I choose to stroll out onto the moor. It is eerily quiet and still. There was a frost last night, so at 11:00 am the moor is bathed in beautiful autumn sunshine and light. Stone shrines with clan names roughly carved on them litter the landscape and in the middle is a tall pillar like stone cairn with vegetation growing on the top. This field was a place of tragedy for the Jacobites as their defeat led to the British trying to defeat them as a culture. Immediately following the uprising Gaelic was banned, the wearing of the tartan was banned and it was ruled no more than very small numbers of Scots were ever to be in the same place at one time thereafter, so this split families and communities asunder. I feel so much sadness at this place of bloodshed for the Jacobites. Sorrow. It is a moving experience being here.
From Culloden Moor we trek to Inverness. Today I am relieved we are given many photo opportunities off the coach. We disembark at Inverness to photograph the Ness River, the Castle and St. Andrews Catholic Church and even though our time here is brief, it is a gesture of acknowledging this city’s importance in Scottish history.
From Inverness we travel to nearby Loch Ness, and the day’s brilliant blue sky finds the huge body of water resplendent in the midday sunshine. Loch Ness is some twenty three miles long and up to one mile wide, and 700-800 feet deep in places. The surrounding mountains and forests, and road that winds its way around the edge of the huge lake paints a scenic picture in all directions. Beautiful. We see the ruin of Urquhart Castle and pass the loch system at the top of the loch that feeds water into the lake from the River Ness.
Onto Ben Nevis the highest mountain in Britain for more photos then Fort Willian for lunch. I had thought we would see Wentworth Prison today but I find out on Google it is a “fictional Wentworth Prison” that is mentioned in Gabaldon’s books and that many of the scenes relative to Wentworth Prison were actually shot in Blackness Castle in a different location.
The scenery close to and after Fort William leads us up into the true Highlands of Scotland. The landscape is riveting, stunning, incredibly wild, untamed and rugged. It is beautiful. Breathtaking. I have found Scotland. It is everything I imagined and more. Raw, rich in its depth of colour and hue, and it has an enormous palette of varied shape and contour. There are wild crags, mountains and waterfalls; bogs and peat fields. It is windswept. At times forested in lower elevations. And at other times……..treeless. Covered in heather and exposed rock. Words are simply not enough to describe this highland world and all its glory. We stop several times for photos. But I realise one photo is simply unable to show the quintessential heart of this landscape. So the camera is kept incredibly busy and captures image after image after image of this outstanding region’s incomparable beauty. I….am….in….awe. I am………in love.
RA tells us about the massacre of the MacDonald Clan at Glencoe. It is a sad tale, a tale of tragedy and betrayal. The English bound by their laws and desperate to show no leniency to any who break their laws, kill outright the majority of the Clan. Over two hundred flee however to other climes and live to tell the tale. And it becomes a stalwart tale in history. The Glencoe countryside is particularly beautiful. Harsh, unforgiving, rugged. But it was home to this tragic clan who met with callous disregard by the English. I am converted. A Scot at heart…….if it is possible.
We trek onto Rannoch Moor and I am bewitched by the landscape. We stop for photos again. It is old here, ancient. A diverse living organism but a fragile environment. RA tells us how sensitive it is to interference and alteration and I applaude the powers that have deemed it to be left as a wilderness park, untouched and unchanged.
Onto Loch Lombard and Rob Roy country and the closer we trek to Glasgow, the lower down in elevation we trek, I notice the landscape altering subtly with every foot we descend. Loch Lombard is postcard picture perfect and we again stop for photos.
Today has been a tick of approval by the tour operators as to what is most important in Scotland’s list of must sees. They want us to capture this country at its best, at its most picturesque. There is no snow. But there is evidence of where it falls. Evidence in the lack of vegetation, evidence in the jagged rocky peaks.
We arrive in Glasgow at 6:30 pm. The hotel for our accommodations tonight is plain on the outside but very nice inside. Our dinner is included tonight. There are comprehensive choices and we all decide to sit amongst tourers we haven’t yet met. It is an interesting and entertaining evening.
Tomorrow we head onto the Lakes District then onto Liverpool back in England. I am sad to be leaving Scotland……..
To read more about Travel Essae’s 13 Day Cosmos Tour England, Scotland and Wales visit https://www.travelessae.com.au/part-three-b-england-scotland-and-wales on this blog.